Adjustments
by trufflemores
Summary: Written during the summer before 5x14, "New New York." Obligatory AC-breaks-during-a-heatwave fic, featuring grumpy Kurt and cuddly Blaine. Klaine. COMPLETE.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Glee or any of its characters; Ryan Murphy and Co. hold that honor. I'm simply writing this for fun, not profit.

It was the seventh hottest day of the year and the air conditioner had stopped working again.

Normally Kurt would have just kicked off the blankets and suffered in silence in the dark, waiting for sleep to lull him back in on its own time. With Blaine emitting more heat than the average campfire at his side, however, he had no hopes for staying cool, sweltering at his side and wondering absentmindedly if Blaine would even notice if he nudged him gently off the bed.

He wasn't proud to admit that he had already tried, stopping when Blaine snuffled in his sleep and shuffled closer to him on the bed. Even wrapped up in his blanket burrito – consisting of only one sheet for a change, but _how _he managed to sleep in it at all was a mystery to Kurt – he still sought out Kurt's warmth. Cuddling was fine with Kurt when the loft was chilly and the sheets were comfortably cool against his skin. Damp with sweat and unbearably warm, Kurt would have happily traded the ice box for Blaine's blanket burrito at the moment. He had only morosely dejected the idea of sticking his head in the freezer to cool down once he realized that he would have to empty it of all Rachel's vegan smoothies first.

Not an enticing prospect at two in the morning, regardless of how tempting cooling down would be. He'd taken the coldest shower that he could stand as soon as he'd stepped inside the loft that night, scrubbing off the grime of the city and reluctantly conceding the bathroom to Sam after an hour. Devouring half a pint of Ben and Jerry's and slicing his nightly push-ups routine in half had left him in a slightly more amicable mood by the time Blaine and he settled down for bed, too hot to do more than exchange a few quick kisses.

At first, it was fine – a little warmer than Kurt would have liked, but tolerable. He even managed to drift off for a few hours, sleeping soundly through Sam's evening workout program. After four blissful hours, he awoke hot and unpleasantly sticky, kicking off the end of the sheet that had somehow become entangled around his feet and shuffling away from Blaine to try and reduce the amount of heat pouring from him.

It wasn't working. At least, not enough that Kurt could sleep, and after staring at the blank underside of the ceiling for the better part of an hour, Kurt was convinced that he was slowly losing his mind.

And then – enlightenment struck, and he wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel more embarrassed at the logic of his sleep-deprived mind or relieved as he shuffled out of bed and onto his knees, tugging out a chest from underneath the bed carefully.

. o .

Twenty minutes later, Kurt sighed happily as he curled into the non-heat retaining, gloriously cool embrace of Bruce. He'd stuffed the body pillow in the fridge for half an hour – and thankfully Sam, Artie, and Blaine had managed to eat most of the remaining pizza that they'd ordered for dinner already, leaving plenty of room for the plastic-wrapped pillow to rest while it cooled – before removing it and almost sinking to the floor in sheer delight as he buried his face against its cool chest.

Maybe not his finest moment, but it worked: he tangled both arms around the pillow and hugged it to his chest, shivering once in relief as he rested his hot cheek against the cool fabric and drifted gratefully off into sleep.

_Until _he felt a very warm, very real arm curl around his waist, accompanied by another tiny sniffle as Blaine's leg slid between his own, a happy rumble of a sound resonating in his chest against Kurt's back. Kurt blinked in bewilderment for a moment, uncomprehending, before he realized that Blaine had actually surrendered his blanket in order to cuddle up against him.

Which was very sweet and romantic, of course, except that it cancelled out the magical cooling power of Bruce.

Kurt stifled a groan against his own arm and resisted the urge to pinch Blaine's as it settled more snugly around his waist.

He loved Blaine – he did – but even so he couldn't help but run his fingers along the hairs on Blaine's arm in the hopes of encouraging him to retract it. Instead, Blaine gave a full-bodied shiver – he was _so _ticklish, and Kurt had used it to his advantage more than once when Blaine tried to use the puppy dog eyes to _his_ advantage– and tightened his grip, squeezing a frustrated sigh from Kurt's lungs.

"God, you're so _clingy,_" he whispered in thinly veiled exasperation, not sure if he felt more annoyed at the moment or pleased that he was the only one Blaine ever let himself be so vulnerable with. Polite, dapper, ever-put-together Blaine who smiled and charmed his way through life without stepping out of line only to cuddle like a _fiend _when they were both supposed to be asleep.

It was nice. Sweet. But it also meant that their hot, sweaty bodies were pressed against each other even more, and without any barriers Kurt felt like he was slowly roasting.

Blaine slept on, completely oblivious to Kurt's suffering.

Just as he was contemplating the best way to disentangle them, Kurt heard wheels and realized that the air wasn't quite as unbearably muggy as it was. Almost pleasantly cool, in fact, and he relaxed with the sudden realization that someone – Artie, it had to be Artie – had fixed the AC. He could even hear the distant but still distinct grinding as the air conditioner came to life, loud and grumbly in the silence.

Letting Bruce slide off the bed with a soft _flumph _and rolling onto his back so he could press against the less heated parts of the sheets, Kurt breathed out a deep, satisfied sigh as the AC went to work, even allowing Blaine to snuggle up underneath his arm again without complaint.

Fuzzy with sleep and oddly satisfied with the thought of improvement, Kurt curled his toes in the sheets crumpled at the foot of their bed as he waited for the cooler air to take full effect. Clad only in his briefs and cuddled up to his fiancé in the same sleepy state of affairs, Kurt felt that even with a barely functional AC, three loud roommates, and a heat wave determined to drive him out of his mind, he was happy with his current predicament.

Of all the changes in his life, one thing remained the same: Blaine was a nighttime cuddler, and it could be a nightmare, sometimes, but mostly he was Kurt's and that was enough for both of them.

Drifting off to sleep with his hand curled around Blaine's shoulders and the AC finally working again, Kurt felt drunk with it: heat, love, and sleep.


End file.
